Cross-border cooperation key to fighting cybercrime - 2nd Deputy Governor

In a bid to fight cybercrime in the financial sector, it has become necessary to have cross-border cooperation that promotes information sharing, says Second Deputy Governor of the Bank of Ghana (BoG), Mrs. Elsie Addo Awadzi.

Mrs. Awadzi was speaking at the Alliance for Financial Inclusion High-Level Joint Learning Programme on Inclusive FinTech Ecosystems and Cybersecurity.

Sharing the BoG’s experience in implementing cybersecurity policy frameworks and the coordination models adopted to build a robust ecosystem, the Second Deputy Governor said, “Going forward, cross-border cooperation remains an issue to explore to promote information sharing and harmonised approaches to regulating cross-border service providers.”

Mrs. Awadzi noted that BoG already has strong cooperation arrangements with key domestic stakeholders.

“Information is shared between BoG and the national authorities frequently. BoG engages with other financial sector regulators bilaterally and at the level of the Financial Stability Council, whose mandate is to promote regulatory cooperation, financial system-wide risk mitigation, and crisis preparedness,” she said.

Within the financial sector, BoG currently implements policies, strategies, and regulation for the banking and other deposit-taking institutions, payments system infrastructure and service providers.

Aside from cooperation in the fight against cybercrime, the central bank, Mrs. Awadzi said, has also been stressing the need for enhanced due diligence in recruitment and outsourcing by financial institutions and payments systems operators and service providers, to mitigate insider fraud.

The central bank, she added, has continually stressed the need for continuous vigilance of all service providers and operators in the ecosystem, as well as the education of consumers to help empower them to take steps to protect their financial transactions, especially those that are digital.

The bank’s comprehensive Risk-Based Supervisory Framework ensures that cyber security issues are embedded in the supervisory cycle for licensed financial services providers as part of operational risks assessments and overall safety and soundness assessments, she said.